1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to positioning systems, and more particularly, to using wireless communications systems to provide aiding information to a positioning system.
2. Related Art
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is an example of a Satellite Positioning System (SATPS), which is maintained by the U.S. Government. GPS is satellite-based using a network of at least 24 satellites orbiting 11,000 nautical miles above the Earth, in six evenly distributed orbits. Each GPS satellite orbits the Earth every twelve hours.
One function of the GPS satellites is to serve as a clock. Each GPS satellite derives its signals from an on board 10.23 MHz Cesium atomic clock. Each GPS satellite transmits a spread spectrum signal with its own individual pseudo noise (PN) code. By transmitting several signals over the same spectrum using distinctly different PN coding sequences the GPS satellites may share the same bandwidth without interfering with each other. The code is 1023 bits long and is sent at a rate of 1.023 megabits per second, yielding a time mark, sometimes called a “chip” approximately once every micro-second. The sequence repeats once every millisecond and is called the coarse acquisition code (C/A code.) Every 20th cycle the code can change phase and is used to encode a 1500 bit long message, which contains “almanac” date for the other GPS satellites.
There are 32 PN codes designated by the GPS authority. Twenty-four of the PN codes belong to current GPS satellites in orbit and the 25th PN code is designated as not being assigned to any GPS satellite. The remaining PN codes are spare codes that may be used in new GPS satellites to replace old or failing units. A GPS receiver may, using the different PN sequences, search the signal spectrum looking for a match. If the GPS receiver finds a match, then it has identified the GPS satellite that generated that signal. Ground based GPS receivers use a variant of radio range measurement methodology, called trilateration, to determine the position of the ground based GPS receiver.
The trilateration method depends on the GPS receiving unit obtaining a time signal from the GPS satellites. By knowing the actual time and comparing it to the time that is received from the GPS satellites that receiver can calculate the distance to the GPS satellite. If, for example, the GPS satellite is 12,000 miles from the receiver, then the receiver must be located somewhere on the location sphere defined by a radius of 12,000 miles from that GPS satellite. If the GPS receiver than ascertains the position of a second GPS satellite it can calculate the receiver's location based on a location sphere around the second GPS satellite. The two spheres intersect and form a circle with the GPS receiver being located somewhere within that location circle. By ascertaining the distance to a third GPS satellite the GPS receiver can project a location sphere around the third GPS satellite. The third GPS satellite's location sphere will then intersect the location circle produced by the intersection of the location spheres of the first two GPS satellites at just two points. By determining the location sphere of one more GPS satellite whose location sphere will intersect one of the two possible location points, the precise position of the GPS receiver is determined to be the location point located on the Earth. The fourth GPS satellite is also used to resolve the clock error in the receiver. As a consequence, the exact time may also be determined, because there is only one time offset that can account for the positions of all the GPS satellites. The trilateration method may yield positional accuracy on the order of 30 meters; however the accuracy of GPS position determination may be degraded due to signal strength and multipath reflections.
As many as 11 GPS satellites may be received by a GPS receiver at one time. In certain environments such as a canyon, some GPS satellites may be blocked out, and the GPS position determining system may depend for position information on GPS satellites that have weaker signal strengths, such as GPS satellites near the horizon. In other cases, overhead foliage may reduce the signal strength that is received by the GPS receiver unit.
Recently mobile communication devices such as cellular telephones, or mobile handsets, have been incorporating GPS receiver technology using multiple dedicated semiconductor chips to implement a communication portion and other dedicated semiconductor chips to implement a GPS sub-system of the mobile communication device. Such mobile handsets operate in connection with a mobile communications network for telecommunications services, and in connection with the GPS system to obtain the position of the mobile handset. In mobile handsets with integrated GPS receivers, time information obtained from the mobile communications network may be provided to the GPS receiver in order to reduce the search space for detecting satellites. Systems that make time information from a mobile communications network available to the GPS receiver are known generally as assisted GPS systems (A-GPS). In A-GPS systems, accurate time information can be readily provided from the network to help reduce TTFF (time to first fix)—an important GPS performance parameter.
Within a mobile handset, the time information may be provided by a host processor to the GPS receiver through a serial port. A pulse on a separate line from the host processor marks the precise instant when the time record sent over the serial port is true. Many handsets, however, do not have a GPS receiver physically co-located with the host processor. Systems with GPS receivers (such as GPS handsets, navigation systems, automobiles, and other examples) may be linked to mobile communications handsets through a wireless connection, which is unable to provide time aiding information through a physical link. In addition, GPS receivers may not be capable of communicating with a mobile communications handset. Such GPS receivers would not be capable of using A-GPS to obtain time information.
Therefore, there is a need for methods and systems that allow GPS receivers not physically co-located with a sub-system of a network capable of A-GPS to obtain time information.